Suicidal Thoughts

Posted in poetry, Reading, Real Men with tags , , on September 24, 2019 by Jarrod Boyle

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4.

‘Wrapping my coat around me like my own sweet shadow, I unscrewed the bottle of pills and began taking them swiftly, between gulps of water, one by one by one.

At first nothing happened, but as I approached the bottom of the bottle, red and blue lights began to flash before my eyes. The bottle slid from my fingers and I lay down.  

The silence drew off, baring the pebbles and shells and all the tatty wreckage of my life. Then, at the rim of the vision, it gathered itself, and in one sweeping tide, rushed me to sleep.’

p.163 Continue reading →

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Suicidal Thoughts

Posted in Fiction, Reading, Real Men with tags , , on September 17, 2019 by Jarrod Boyle

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3.

“I thought I would swim out until I was too tired to swim back. As I paddled on, my heartbeat boomed like a dull motor in my ears. I am I am I am.”

P. 152

I watched my grandmother Joanna die, day by day. Continue reading →

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Suicidal Thoughts

Posted in poetry, Reading, Real Men with tags , , , , , , on September 13, 2019 by Jarrod Boyle

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2.

“A dispassionate white sun shone at the summit of the sky. I wanted to hone myself on it till I grew saintly and thin and essential as the blade of a knife.”

– The Bell Jar Page 90.

Simone De Beauvoir writes in The Second Sex that because men are encouraged to fight, they come to trust themselves and their ability to grapple with the world and its challenges. Continue reading →

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Suicidal Thoughts

Posted in poetry, Reading, Real Men with tags , , , , on September 3, 2019 by Jarrod Boyle

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1.

‘There’s two acts of creation at work in the novel: the writer’s, and the reader’s.’

– Rodney Hall.

Some books, you read them and they go right through you like a glass of water. Other books seem to take up residence and become a part of who you are, like marrow, or muscle fibre.

I recently read Sylvia Plath’s The Bell Jar for the second time.

Continue reading →

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Sylvia Plath: Godmother of Punk Rock?

Posted in Pretensions toward cultural theory, Real Men with tags , , , , , , , , , on August 6, 2019 by Jarrod Boyle

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If you google Sylvia Plath, it’s hard to find her described in any terms other than the superlative. ‘One of the finest lyric poets of the twentieth century,’ is pretty close to the general assessment. Continue reading →

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Rodney Hall: A Stolen Season

Posted in Fiction, Reading, Real Men with tags , , , , , , , , , , , on July 16, 2019 by Jarrod Boyle
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At the gym – working on the gun show.

Rodney Hall is one of Australia’s greatest living writers. He has been nominated for the Miles Franklin Award seven times and if he wins this year, it’ll be the third time he’s gone home with the prize.

I have known him for eighteen years and he never fails to deliver on the subject of literature. He has been kind enough to wax lyrical at the Theme Park on matters literary and a few others that happen to intersect within his purview. 

T.P: I’m guessing that if the Miles Franklin Award was predicated on biceps, you’d win that. Continue reading →

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Vegan Apocalypse

Posted in Pretensions toward cultural theory with tags , , on July 8, 2019 by Jarrod Boyle

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Last Saturday, I caught up with a couple of my closest friends at the Cornish Arms Hotel. One of us has severe dietary intolerances and we opted for the Cornish Arms because the vegan menu most closely resembles a cuisine his gut can manage. Continue reading →

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